You'll make it to Tomorrow
by CutieTeddybear
Summary: Guy has lived by that phrase, it kept him alive. Now that he's there...he doesn't know what to do. Surprisingly he finds comfort from a very unexpected source.


It wasn't unusual for there to be thunderstorms in Tomorrow.

In fact it was the only fault in this paradise, one the Croods could look past easily, but still got annoyed when the weekly storms came to pass. Eep often shouted that the thunder would wake her up and Grug would make sure everyone is there and be the usual worry war he was. Ugga made sure everything was safe and secure from the storm and Thunk kept Sandy entertained. Originally it was Belt who entertained Sandy while Thunk helped his father and Guy would help Ugga with securing everything.

Originally.

Ironically enough, it wasn't a storm that did the lively sloth in. The sloth had been there since Guy was little and it was just age and sickness that had done the little thing in. The Croods have lost animals before and Guy had just been fine, more than fine, he was used to loss.

But they weren't Belt.

At first Guy seemed to be okay, shrugged it off like he always did. He smiled and joked with the Croods but Ugga knew that something was off. He seemed a little off. He would refer to Belt and get no response and his whole face changed into confusion. As if he didn't know why Belt was gone, or where he had gone, or when he'll be back. It would just be for a moment before Guy would snap back and act like it had never happened. Smile and laugh as always but they never reached his eyes. Eep noticed that. Before Guy's expressions were plain on his face, his eyes being accurate to his inner feelings, but now they seemed dark and lost. Eep's closest comparison to it would be the night sky without any of the suns in it. Only the suffocating darkness was all she could see and now Eep would always try to avoid Guy's eyes.

Grug was reminded of tar.

Not the tar he and Guy had been trapped in. No, it was the imaginary tar Guy had to watch swallow his parents slowly. It was the idea that a small child had to watch his parents perish and then had to somehow continue to live without any guidance. The very idea was everything Grug wasn't. Grug had always said his rules were what kept his family alive but Guy had no rules, no father, no mother, nothing but Belt. Grug remembered clearly what Eep was like as a child and the idea that Guy never got that, never got to be impulsive or crazy. As much as he had hated Eep doing dangerous stunts it was who she was and what being a child was all about. Guy couldn't do that, Guy had to be a father and a mother to himself and keep himself alive. Every time he saws Guy's eyes he felt like they were suffocating him. The tar was swallowing him whole and reminding him of how he treated Guy before he knew what Guy's past was like.

It was funny, there hadn't been a storm.

Actually in the months Belt's been gone there hasn't been a storm, sure some rain but nor thunder or anything. They thought that would help but no, Guy was becoming worse and most of the Croods didn't know how to act properly. He became quiet and distant, staring off into nothing. Ugga would ask if he ate and Guy wouldn't respond or, on good days, he would shrug. Eep tried to get him to join her one rides but he didn't even try to pretend and now his whole face showed what his eyes held, emptiness.

Gran was reminded of herself.

She hadn't fully realized it until a huge storm came. It was as if the earth itself was holding back all its fury and tears like Guy had, as if the Earth was sympathizing with the skinny boy. That's what Gran called him, a boy. She was old enough that he and Eep were just children to her but she never knew how accurate she was in calling Guy a boy. The thunder crashed down and Gran couldn't sleep, haunted by her past and of a large red rock that hadn't been that color the day before. Her trip gerbils stayed by her side loyally, becoming ear muffs to help block out sounds.

How funny that she found Guy deep in a cave where the thunder echoed and the lightning lit up the walls to reveal horrifying shadows. How hilarious that it was like how Eep was when she was little and scared only there was no Grug for Guy, no Ugga, and no Gran.

Nobody.

It flashed in her mind when she heard the sobs. The dancing, the red on the rock, and the grip so tight it bruised her wrist and marked her for months. She was horrified that it had come to this and she felt terrible because if she hadn't fallen for him he would still be alive. That stayed with her even to this day. Suddenly it all came together and Gran knew what Guy was doing, or at least had an idea. She had done the same thing when she had been first traded off. Running off to cry and sob and try to hold back the pain and the sorrow and the fear. Completely shutting down and just moving and working but she wasn't actually _there._

He was just a child.

The thought sickened her, sure she was a salty old woman but she had to be to survive. This was Guy, a sweet young boy with a big heart and too skinny for his own good.

 _He was only a child._

A child like Eep and Thunk and Sandy. A child like how Ugga was and how Grug probably was.

 _ **He's a child.**_

Gran had been older, wiser, and knew how to work even when upset and broken. Gran knew how to fight back and survive on her own cause someone had been there to teach her. She had gone through her own loss and tragedy just like Guy but _she knew how to handle it_. Guy didn't, he was little and young and weak. A child should be impulsive and be wild and never worry but Guy _had_ to worry, _had_ to be calm, and _had_ to think about every little thing he did. Belt's importance hit her like a corn cob on fire, he was the one thing that kept Guy going. He was Guy's ugga. Gran remembered having Ugga and loving her so much and never wanted her to go through what she had. Belt was what kept Guy going, Guy didn't want to lose him so he had to take care for the both of them.

"Your breathing."

Guy froze, his breathing becoming even more erratic at the voice. He didn't turn around but just curled even more. He looked so small and fragile, something breakable. He looked like how Gran had when _**he**_ was furious Ugga was a girl.

"Try to slow it down."

She sat next to him now, not to close but not too far.

"I'm trying."

His voice was weak and hoarse. Gran expected this due to how long he has gone without speaking. What she never expected was lightning to flash and reveal so much of what has gone unnoticed. Gran's throat went dry and she swallowed to try and wet it but it wouldn't go down.

"That's good, keep trying okay?"

She could see ribs. Oh he had always been thinner than the rest of them but it was a healthy thin, not like this. She could see ribs and his color was no longer that bronze Eep loved. No it was dull and patchy and dirty. If someone had come to her and said 'this is Guy' and showed her the boy she was looking at she would have laughed and shook her head because that wasn't Guy. This wasn't Guy.

But it was.

That's what hurt the most that this was Guy. She had never had anyone to help her and she knew what that does to people.

"Tell me if this is okay."

She placed a coarse, bony, hand on his back and waited for Guy's reaction. He didn't show any discomfort, which was good, but he also showed no comfort. After a while his breathing started to calm down and he relaxed into her hand. The storm had also calmed down, thunder coming less and less and the lightning rarely ever lighting the cave walls. The trip gerbils curled around Gran's neck and relaxed against her.

"I was back there."

He was talking, that was good, right?

"I was back there, I could hear their screams."

Oh…Oh no please. Gran didn't want to hear this but at the same time she knew it would help.

"There was a storm, and I slipped."

Gran snapped her head towards Guy, had he been the one who fell in?

"We all did and the tar was so hot and my legs were in it and I was screaming because it hurt so much."

Gran blinked at the realization that Guy has never shown his lower half of his body, not even to take off his shoes. Now she knew the answer to a question she never even asked.

"I kept screaming and screaming and it caused my parents to slip trying to save me."

Was he crying or was it Gran? It was hard to tell.

"My mom fell head first, she opened her mouth to scream and it went in her mouth."

The image nearly made Gran vomit, and she had nearly eaten her own grandchild.

"My dad got me out but he couldn't escape, he told me to continue on but I couldn't. I couldn't feel anything but the pain and the heat and the screams."

Gran pictured a tiny version of Guy with that big toothy grin and chubby cheeks contorted in utter agony and she felt her heart break all over again. She pictured Ugga or Eep or even Thunk and Sandy in his position and nearly hurled.

"I laid there, holding my dad's hand the whole night through. That was when Belt found me, with medicine. I managed to drag myself into a cave and hide there until I could move."

Gran glanced down at Guy's covered legs and tried to imagine the scars he bore.

"It hurt so much to move, it still does at times but I had to keep moving. I have to get to Tomorrow."

And now he's here and has no idea what to do. Gran finally understood all Guy has been holding back. Guy has been clinging to that one last advice his parents gave him as a connection to them. Now it's been severed.

"I-Is is bad that I thought I would never find Tomorrow?"

Gran didn't know she could cry, but here were the tears streaming down her face.

"No, you're just a boy."

That's all he was, just a boy. A boy who grow up to fast for his own good and now has damaged from it. Like she was.

"I could hear them, their screams."

He had mentioned that and Gran wished she could help. She scratched one of the Trip Gerbils when she was struck with an idea.

"I think I can help. I have an idea."

Gran will swear she saw a smile from Guy. He looked to her with a confused look to which Gran chuckled and motioned for him to lie down.

"I hate thunderstorms too, so I have the gerbils sleep over my ears and listen to them breathing."

Guy's eyebrows furled but got the idea and closed his eyes, breathing becoming a little more erratic. Gran ushered the gerbils next to Guy's ears and let him get used to the feeling of fur. After a few minutes Guy seemed to relax and his breathing became deeper.

He was asleep.

Gran smiled and looked out the cave to see the storm had passed. It was morning and the Croods were tracking their scents. She moved to the cave's entrance and told them to shush so Guy could sleep.

There was something about her smile Ugga hasn't seen in her mom in a long time. It reminded Ugga of her childhood, how Gran would look at ugga as if she was the sun itself. That's when Ugga realized she has become another parent to Guy just like she and Grug. They all had the same idea. To give Guy what he never got.

A family.


End file.
